Here's a great discussion about neonicotinoids in response to a question posted on the Garden Professors Blog page on Facebook. (I have X'd out people's names.)
Neonicotinoids are systemic insecticides, which have been widely used on plants sold in garden centers. Now people are realizing that these poisons are detrimental to our pollinators. This discussion includes good solid resources The problem with most readily available information is lack of scientific references.
I hope you find this useful. Sustainable gardeners love their pollinators.
Green Gardening Matters,
Ginny Stibolt
I've been asked by one of my editors to include information on neonicotinoids in a column on creating a bee-frendly herb garden. Her specific concern is that "Some theorize that bees may be dying, in part, because of the neonicotinoids that a lot of the big box stores (Home Depot, KMart) spray on their plants. " In light of recent discussions here about taking a hard look at sources, I did an online search and found the first page or two was loaded with reaction to a preliminary report published by the EPA in January, indicating there may be a problem. Many, if not all, of the sources listed were basically echoing the alarmist reactions to the EPA.
Getting to the heart of the matter for me - if young herbs are sprayed with neonicotinoids, how long would this last in the plant? For most of them it would be a minimum 2-3 months from spraying (i.e. before they were purchased by consumers in 4" pots) to nectar production. How long do neonicotinoids stay in plant tissue?
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